## Facts

- Sacred Heart St. Mary’s Hospitals, Inc. operated a rural Wisconsin hospital and ambulance service using in-house EMTs by day and on-call crews after hours.
- Garrett Dinges and Christine Foster were EMTs assigned to “first-out” on-call status by request.
- During on-call periods, first-out EMTs had to respond to a page and arrive at the hospital within seven minutes; second-out EMTs had fifteen minutes.
- First-out EMTs received $2.25 per hour for on-call time and time-and-a-half for time spent handling emergencies.
- For each emergency call, the hospital credited first-out EMTs with at least two hours of work even if the call took less time; longer calls were paid for actual time.
- Under the then-common 14–16 hour on-call periods, first-out EMTs averaged about 0.65 calls per on-call period.
- Because Tomahawk was small and within the seven-minute radius, EMTs could remain at home or conduct activities within or near the city while on call.
- Plaintiffs asserted on-call restrictions substantially limited travel and personal plans (e.g., holidays with relatives, weddings, reunions, assisting with a family business 20 miles away, and distant recreation).
- The hospital maintained that on-call EMTs could engage in many ordinary at-home and local activities (sleeping, eating, childcare, chores, errands, and attending local events) while remaining reachable.

## Issues

1. Whether plaintiffs’ on-call hours constituted “hours worked” under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 207, requiring additional compensation (including overtime premiums).

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit affirmed judgment for the hospital.
- The court held that the EMTs’ on-call time was not compensable work time under the FLSA.
- The court applied a functional inquiry centered on whether the employees could use on-call time for ordinary personal activities, concluding they could.

## Legal Principles

- On-call time is compensable under the FLSA only when it is spent predominantly for the employer’s benefit; labels such as “on call” are not controlling.
- A practical test is whether the employee can devote on-call time to the ordinary activities of private life; if so, the time is generally not “work.”
- Response-time requirements and geographic limits do not automatically convert on-call time into hours worked; the degree of restriction and actual interference with personal pursuits matter.
- Call frequency and the extent of actual interruptions are relevant to whether on-call time is effectively usable for personal pursuits.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit concluded that, despite meaningful limits on travel and scheduling, the EMTs could use on-call time largely for ordinary private activities within Tomahawk and were infrequently called out, so the on-call hours were not compensable as “hours worked” under the FLSA.


Dinges v. Sacred Heart St. Mary’s Hosps., Inc., 164 F.3d 1056 (7th Cir. 1999)